Duke Blue Devils basketball fans know all about what Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel can do. It hasn’t take long for the Duke products to show the NBA world how special they are as part of their rookie seasons with the Dallas Mavericks and Charlotte Hornets, respectively.
The duo’s latest feat: Sweeping the Rookie of the Month awards.
Knueppel was named the Eastern Conference’s Rookie of the Month for December. Flagg earned the same honor in the Western Conference. It’s the first time Rookie of the Month winners have come from the same school in the same month.
The NBA started naming a Rookie of the Month in each conference back in 2001-02, so it’s quite a feat. These two Blue Devils might find themselves in an unexpectedly heated Rookie of the Year race, too.
Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick, was expected to run away with that award. He’s playing great, putting up 19.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game while adding 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks a contest.
Knueppel was the No. 4 pick. He’s at 19.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. The major difference: Knueppel is shooting an absurd 43.2% from 3-point range on high volume, and he’s making 90.0% of his foul shots.
The way this is going is making it even more painful for Duke fans that the Blue Devils didn’t win the national title a season ago. But that’s in the past, and at this point, Duke fans can simply root on Flagg and Knueppel to keep representing the Blue Devils well in the best basketball league on the planet.
